It appears that President Barack Obama does not intend to free
Jonathan Pollard.

"Our position has not changed and will not change today," White House
Spokesman Jay Carney told journalists at a daily briefing Wednesday
when asked about the subject. "I would simply remind you that Mr.
Pollard was convicted of very serious crimes."

In his meeting with his American counterpart Wednesday, President
Peres will ask Obama to grant a pardon for Jonathan Pollard on
humanitarian grounds.

In a Fox News interview, President Peres made it clear that he would
not ask that President Obama pardon Pollard, only that his sentence
be reduced to the time already served.

Pollard, incarcerated for some 27 years on a single charge of passing
classified information to an ally (Israel), has been in increasingly
poor health. He was hospitalized several times over the past year,
including for emergency surgery.